Best Healthy Cookbooks | 2017

Make Good on Your Resolution With 1 of These Killer Cookbooks

Overindulged over the holiday? Resolved to cook more in 2018? Simply looking to expand your culinary repertoire? If you've answered yes to any (or all), a new cookbook is an excellent place to start. With that in mind, I've rounded up the best new releases from 2017 — some well known, and some you may have missed.

As a wellness-focused food blogger and (admittedly) a bit of a cookbook hoarder, I've read, bookmarked, and ultimately cooked from dozens of new releases to discover which are worth your attention. Keep reading for my 11 favorite titles from the past year. Whether you're a vegetarian or vegan, follow a gluten-free or Paleo diet, or are just looking to incorporate more nutritious, produce-heavy meals into your diet, there's a book for you.

Naturally Nourished

The second cookbook from My New Roots blogger Sarah Britton, Naturally Nourished ($30) is focused on elevated but weeknight-friendly recipes made from accessible ingredients. Vibrantly plant-centric and generously seasoned with spices and herbs, more recipes than not are vegan and gluten-free, though Britton makes smart use of ingredients like goat cheese, yogurt, whole-wheat flour, and the occasional egg. If I had to pick one favorite of the bunch, this title might be it.

Ready or Not!

Many Paleo cookbooks rehash the same set of dull, meat-and-potatoes-crowd recipes, but not Ready or Not! ($35) from Nom Nom Paleo's Michelle Tam and Henry Fong. Yes, meat is a big part of the equation here, but so are fresh produce and bold flavors, with many recipes drawing inspiration from Italy and Asia. One of the most practical books of this bunch, its pages are filled with plenty of Instant Pot and slow-cooker recipes, as well as strategies for meal planning and prep. It's also worth noting that this is a great purchase for less-experienced cooks, as the recipes are thoroughly tested and clearly written, with plenty of detail.

In My Kitchen

With its textured cover, elegant design, and stunning photography, Deborah Madison's In My Kitchen ($33) could easily be mistaken for a coffee-table book, but it will serve you just as well in the kitchen. Arranged by ingredient, rather than course or season, it is my favorite of Madison's many vegetarian-friendly cookbooks, as the recipes are relatively pared down and shaped by her decades of cookbook-writing experience. An emphasis is placed on the sourcing of ingredients — some recipes will send you searching specialty and farmers markets — but Madison typically provides substitution ideas for harder-to-find items.

The Vegetable

The Vegetable ($40) by Caroline Griffiths and Vicki Valsamis is a worthy purchase for adventurous cooks and farmers market shoppers. While there are plenty of recipes using broccoli, zucchini, spaghetti squash, and the like, underappreciated vegetables like turnips, tatsoi, amaranth, and celeriac are featured heavily. Drawing from a globally inspired pantry, these craveable vegetarian dishes might just introduce you to a new favorite spice or technique. Bonus: the aesthetically-minded will admire this title's copper-edged pages and gorgeous photos.

Bowls of Plenty

If you're keen on grain bowls (and really, who isn't?) Bowls of Plenty ($28) by Carolynn Carreño is a no-brainer addition to your cookbook library. Flipping through it, I found myself tabbing nearly every other recipe, and once I started cooking from it, I became even more certain of its place on this list. Written by a veteran cookbook author — Carreno collaborated on 13 titles before this, her first solo venture — the recipes are globally inspired, and exceptionally well-written and -tested. Vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores alike will find inspiration here; whole grains are the thread that ties it all together.

Dishing Up the Dirt

CSA subscribers and farmers market devotees, Andrea Bemis' Dishing Up the Dirt ($30) is the 2017 title for you. This, of course, is fitting, given that Bemis runs an organic farm and CSA with her husband and is no stranger to finding exciting ways to cook up their harvest. Organized by season, killer farm-to-table recipes are interspersed with snaps of the couple's farm and honest, memoir-like writing.

The First Mess Cookbook

One does not need to be a plant-based eater to find inspiration in Laura Wright's The First Mess Cookbook ($30), the first cookbook from the beloved vegan blogger. Recipes using wellness-world favorites like turmeric, nutritional yeast, fermented foods, chia seeds, cauliflower rice, and tempeh get their due here, as do twists on comfort-food classics like burrito-stuffed sweet potatoes, millet polenta, and eggplant bacon. Really, there's something for pretty much everyone here.

The Wellness Project

Phoebe Lapine’s The Wellness Project ($25) is not your average cookbook. In fact, it’s not really a cookbook at all. There are no glossy photographs and only 22 recipes within its 384 pages. And yet, it is one of my favorite collections of recipes from 2017 — it's a title that I’ve found myself recommending to others often and wholeheartedly. Written by the blogger behind Feed Me Phoebe, this memoir follows Lapine through a year of experimenting with lifestyle changes, devoting a month each to topics like green beauty, gut health, fitness, stress, and hormonal regulation, all along reporting on what works for her and what doesn’t. Healthy, gluten-free recipes are interwoven throughout its pages, and the ones included are of the appealing and easy-to-make sort.

The Savvy Cook

For vegetarian recipes that are quick, easy, and fun (think carrot cake overnight oats), consider The Savvy Cook ($20), written by Top With Cinnamon blogger, Izy Hossack. Taking inspiration from her own life as a college student, most of Hossack's recipes are scaled to feed one to two eaters, affordable ingredients are prioritized, and tips, swaps, and suggestions for how to use leftovers are sprinkled throughout the text. Beginner-friendly, but not too basic, it also includes a chapter entitled "cheeky treats," to, as Hossack says "nourish your soul as well as your body."

The Beauty Chef

I'll admit that initially I was a bit unsure about The Beauty Chef ($35) written by Carla Oates, the founder of the Australian skincare and supplement brand by the same name. But my skepticism quickly faded as I flipped through and cooked from its gorgeous, gluten-free recipes. The concept: glowing, healthy skin starts with a healthy gut, and the ingredients used are chosen with that in mind. Dairy is mostly absent here, but meat, seafood, healthy fats, and eggs appear often.